Respect for Fundamental Rights as a Constitutional Principle of the European Union
6 Colum. J. Eur. L. 1 (2000) Koen Lenaerts. Judge, Court of First Instance of the European Communities; Professor of Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. On the eve of the Intergovernmental Conference which opened in Turin on 29 March 1996 with the task of drafting what was to become the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Court of Justice delivered an Opinion in which it found that: “As Community law now stands, the Community has no competence to accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms” (hereinafter “the Convention” or “the European Convention on Human Rights”). Having […]